QUANTICO, Va.  On opening day of the infantry officer course, two Marine lieutenants stand facing each other. One man. One woman. Gnarled ropes, the rough fibers slicked with rain, sweat and blood, dangle at their muddy boots.

The ropes on the obstacle course are suspended from timbers more than 20 feet high. The lieutenants peer up at them, into the cloudy sky and the distance they must climb with aching muscles and day packs dragging them back to earth.

2nd Lt. Anthony Pace, a 2008 Carlsbad High School graduate, stands a long while at the edge of the landing pad of tire scraps. After the initial survey he keeps his head down, sucking deep breaths, hands twittering nervously at his sides. Then he starts to climb.

Pace’s performance Tuesday determined whether he could continue the 86-day program. Ultimately, it set the course for his job in the Marine Corps.

The stakes were different for two women among the 79 officers attempting the initial combat endurance test. The Corps, under orders like the other armed forces to open all jobs to women by 2016 or justify an exception, is researching the implications of integrating all-male ground combat units.

For now, even if a female Marine passes the infantry course, she still can’t become an infantry officer.

Many Marines, active and retired, oppose the idea of women infantry.

“People are emotional about it,” said Col. Todd Desgrosseilliers, commanding officer of The Basic School at Quantico, which oversees the normally all-male infantry course.

The last remaining woman currently undergoing training at the Marines Officer Infantry Course performs a series of test while undergoing Tuesday's all day Combat Endurance Test.
— Nelvin C. Cepeda / UT San Diego

2ndLt. Thomas Stipanov, graduated from Francis Parker 2006 looks over his coordinates and orients himself with his map during land navigation at the Marines Officer Infantry Course while undergoing Tuesday's all day Combat Evaluation Test.
— Nelvin C. Cepeda / UT San Diego

The last remaining woman undergoing training at the Marines Officer Infantry Course performs a series of test while undergoing last Tuesday's all day Combat Evaluation Test.
— Nelvin C. Cepeda / UT San Diego

It is hard not to be, he admits, when the primary function of the infantry is what Thomas Hobbes called our primal fear: “violent death from another human being. That’s what we deal with in the infantry … closing with and killing the enemy.”

Should women take that job? Society must sort that out, Desgrosseilliers said. But as far as the physical standard is concerned, “Let’s just see how they do and talk about it. Let’s figure out what the facts are and have a fact-based discussion.”

Research

The Corps, the most male of the U.S. armed forces and the one most dominated by its infantry, was the first to allow women into infantry training.

Maj. Scott Cuomo, director of the infantry officer course, credits the commandant for “jumping on the grenade” to research the prospect head-on.

Questions the Corps is considering include whether women have the upper-body strength and endurance to hack it in the infantry, how disruptive their integration might be, how many women even want to join, and whether any of that justifies maintaining gender-based job restrictions.

The Corps is trying to get 92 women to complete the infantry course. More than 180 women have been offered the challenge. Only six have accepted.

Most men in Marine basic officer training don’t want to become infantry either. About a quarter of those who do end up failing or dropping out of the grueling 13-week regimen testing their physical, mental and moral acumen. More than 10 percent wash out the first day.